{"id":2495,"date":"2012-09-26T22:39:29","date_gmt":"2012-09-26T22:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.duckduckmoose.com\/?p=2495"},"modified":"2013-10-01T23:49:59","modified_gmt":"2013-10-01T23:49:59","slug":"duck-duck-moose-raises-7-million-in-series-a-financing-from-lightspeed-venture-partners-sequoia-capital-and-stanford-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.duckduckmoose.com\/2012\/09\/duck-duck-moose-raises-7-million-in-series-a-financing-from-lightspeed-venture-partners-sequoia-capital-and-stanford-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Duck Duck Moose Raises $7 Million in Series A Financing from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital and Stanford University"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN MATEO (September 26, 2012) \u2013 Duck Duck Moose<\/a>, the creator of award-winning educational apps for children, announced today that it has received $7 million in Series A venture funding led by Sequoia Capital<\/a> and Lightspeed Venture Partners<\/a>, with participation from Stanford University. The funding will be used to grow Duck Duck Moose\u2019s popular family of apps, expand the executive team, and add illustrators, animators and engineers to the rapidly growing company.<\/p>\n

With more than 2.4 million paid app downloads, Duck Duck Moose has become one of the industry\u2019s most popular designers of quality, educational children\u2019s apps. This month, Duck Duck Moose earned three additional Parents\u2019 Choice Awards for its most recent titles, Trucks<\/a>, Princess Fairy Tale Maker<\/a>, and Superhero Comic Book Maker<\/a>, making it the only company to win 14 Parents\u2019 Choice Awards in the mobile category. Every Duck Duck Moose app has now been recognized with this iconic seal of approval from the Parents\u2019 Choice Foundation, the nation\u2019s leading nonprofit guide to quality children\u2019s media and toys.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s rare to find a team such as Duck Duck Moose that plies its craft with the skill and imagination of artisans. The quality that comes shining through in its apps is why people have chosen to pay for them 2.4 million times, all without a penny being spent on marketing,\u201d said Aaref Hilaly, Partner, Sequoia Capital. \u201cIn a noisy market that offers a dizzying array of choices, Duck Duck Moose\u2019s brand stands out as one that is loved and trusted by parents, children and educators alike. We are thrilled to help them build on this foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duck Duck Moose was founded in 2008 by three friends who were inspired by their children\u2019s love of learning. Combining a unique set of design, engineering and creative skills, the Duck Duck Moose team has invented original apps that teach nursery rhymes and songs, introduce early learning concepts in literacy and math, and encourage open-ended creative play through drawing and storytelling. \u201cKid testing\u201d is a central element of Duck Duck Moose\u2019s design process; the team also works closely with teachers to ensure the apps are developmentally appropriate and focused on critical early education skills. All of the apps feature original characters and stories developed by Duck Duck Moose\u2019s creative team, and they include music produced by two of the founders who are classically-trained musicians.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s mobile devices offer an entirely new way for children to engage with music, math, language and art, but few apps succeed in marrying educational content with engaging interactive experiences,\u201d said Caroline Hu Flexer, co-founder of Duck Duck Moose. \u201cAt Duck Duck Moose, we bring together beautiful visual design, playful characters and stories, intuitive touch interactions, and educational content to transform mobile devices into a platform for children to imagine and learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a father of a three-year-old little girl, I recognize that children are more engaged around interactive educational content on mobile devices than ever before. Duck Duck Moose has demonstrated strong traction, and we believe it has the opportunity to become THE brand that parents think of when they look for mobile applications that will keep their children entertained and deliver a lot of educational value,\u201d said Justin Caldbeck, Managing Director at Lightspeed Venture Partners. \u201cIt\u2019s a great team with great products, and we couldn\u2019t be happier to be working with them as they take these next steps to grow their business.\u201d<\/p>\n

About Duck Duck Moose
\nFounded in 2008 by three friends, Caroline Hu Flexer, Nicci Gabriel and Michael Flexer, who share a passion for education, design, music and play, Duck Duck Moose<\/a> creates some of the most loved educational apps for children. The company has designed and built 14 top-selling apps, from its first musically-focused title, Wheels on the Bus, to its most recent storytelling app, Superhero Comic Book Maker. Every Duck Duck Moose app has earned and sustained top rankings in the iTunes and Android stores, and they have received dozens of awards, including Parents\u2019 Choice awards for all 14 titles, 13 Children\u2019s Technology Review Editor\u2019s Choice Awards, and a KAPi award for the \u201cBest Children\u2019s App\u201d at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show.<\/p>\n

About Lightspeed Venture Partners
\nLightspeed Venture Partners is a leading global venture capital firm with over $2 billion of committed capital under management. Lightspeed\u2019s investment professionals and advisors are located in Silicon Valley, India, Israel and China with Lightspeed China Partners. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed more than 200 companies, many of which have become leaders in their respective markets, including Blue Nile, Brocade, Ciena, DoubleClick, eHealth, Fusion-io, Informatica, Kiva Software, Kosmix, LivingSocial, Lucky Pai, Maker Communications, Playdom, Provigent, Riverbed Technology, Solazyme, TutorVista, Virsa Systems, Waveset, and XtremIO. For more information, visit the Lightspeed website: www.lightspeedvp.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About Sequoia Capital
\nSequoia Capital provides venture capital funding to founders of startups who want to turn business ideas into enduring companies. As the \u201cEntrepreneurs Behind the Entrepreneurs\u201d, Sequoia Capital\u2019s Partners have worked with innovators such as Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, Larry Ellison of Oracle, Bob Swanson of Linear Technology, Sandy Lerner and Len Bozack of Cisco Systems, Dan Warmenhoven of NetApp, Jerry Yang and David Filo of Yahoo!, Jen-Hsun Huang of NVIDIA, Michael Marks of Flextronics, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen of YouTube, Dominic Orr and Keerti Melkote of Aruba Networks, Tony Hsieh of Zappos, Omar Hamoui of Admob, Steve Streit of Green Dot and Reid Hoffman and Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn. To learn more about Sequoia Capital visit www.sequoiacap.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN MATEO (September 26, 2012) \u2013 Duck Duck Moose, the creator of award-winning educational apps for children, announced today that it has received $7 million in Series A venture funding led by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.duckduckmoose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.duckduckmoose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.duckduckmoose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.duckduckmoose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.duckduckmoose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2495"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.duckduckmoose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2582,"href":"http:\/\/www.duckduckmoose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495\/revisions\/2582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.duckduckmoose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.duckduckmoose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.duckduckmoose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}